North civic body blames govt, alleges non-payment of funds

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has alleged the Delhi government has not released R500 crore as grant-in-aid, due to which implementation of various projects and schemes in the areas under its jurisdiction has been severely affected.

According to the leader of the House in the civic body Mahinder Nagpal, the fund crunch has affected functioning of education department, development projects in resettlement colonies, sanitation works and malaria and dengue control programmes, among other things.

“Mayor Azad Singh, standing committee chairman Ram Kishan Singhal and I met chief secretary DM Spolia on Friday for an explanation on the matter and demanded the immediate release of the funds. We have been assured that the funds will be released by next week. Development works and sanitation works have been severely affected due to this delay,” Nagpal said. He added that that in a letter written by Singhal, the corporation had listed in detail all the funds that it should have received in April.

“We have demanded payment of the first installment amounting to Rs 515.84 crore and also sought advance payment of Rs 1,031 crore as second installment of grant-in-aid,” he said.